NewbieDM Review: Red Box Starter Set

I’ve been struggling with this review for a few days, and I can’t quite come to terms with how it is I feel about this new Red Box as a starter set to D&D. I’m also struggling to find for whom exactly this set was designed for. Was it for the completely new players who have never been into fantasy rpg’s, or is it for the old school gamers who left D&D and Wizards wants back into the fold? These are questions that I still don’t feel like I have an answer for, and are clouding my judgment of the box. In as far as production values go, this product is top notch. I do however, have some issues in both content and presentation that make me look at the box with a bit of a negative slant. Here’s what’s inside:

32 page Player’s Book

64 page Dungeon Master’s Book

7 sheets of power cards & magic items

4 character sheets

Sheet of 56 double sided cardboard tokens

Double sided battle map

Complete set of dice

Nostalgic presentation outside. But what's inside?

Right off the top, my favorite thing about this box are the tokens. They are made of thick cardboard with a glossy coating on them. They are double sided, but only the player tokens are double sided to reflect a bloody status. The monsters are double sided only to accommodate a second monster on the flip side. Still, I can see these tokens become popular and maybe weening folks off minis. I know they work for me, but if you’ve been following this blog for a while you’ll know that I love tokens.

It’s worth mentioning the monster selection in the tokens, as I feel that they are very iconic to D&D, and fantasy in general. Even casual fans of the genre will probably identify some of these bad guys when they take a look at them. We have goblins, kobolds, orcs, skeletons, zombies, dragons, and lizardmen, among a few other types. The tokens also include 5 action point tokens as well. The only negative thing that I can say about the tokens (and it is a very minor thing) is that they aren’t labeled with the monster names. Again, a minor, easily ignored thing. These tokens are gorgeous.

Another thing I like is the included map. One side is a complete reprint, and the other is just a random dungeon made up of dungeon tiles, to be used in the included adventure. If you are new to D&D you’ve obviously have never seen these before, you get the “Crossroads” map (which comes from the D&D Miniatures Starter Set), and the “Monster Lair” map. Both have seen the light of day before, but again, if you are new to D&D this is irrelevant. Still, it’s a nice map (as are most poster sized battle maps). The flip side is the dungeon for the adventure included in the Dungeon Master’s book.

Dungeon side of the battlemap

The power and treasure cards are printed on very flimsy paper, it isn’t quite cardstock, but a little stronger than regular paper. They are not very impressive, but not completely crappy either. Just adequate enough for play would be my comment. I have heard of people ripping them by mistake when attempting to punch them out, so be careful.

Power Cards

The red box trip down memory lane continues with the Player’s Book, and its instructions on the cover to “Read This First!”. Now, the Player’s Book is a little frustrating to me, and I’ll tell you why. It’s a 32 page “choose your own adventure” exercise meant to guide the player as he or she creates a character. This has been hailed as a neat idea, and it emulates the 1983 Mentzer red box that this set is inspired by, yet something feels missing here. I don’t feel that it’s right to compare both products, as almost 30 years stand between them and they are two separate games, but I’ll make a small comparison. Although to be frank, WOTC invites the comparison by slapping Elmore’s artwork on a red box.

Anyway, the Mentzer red box did give you a “choose your own adventure”, but it also gave you stuff on going to town to buy equipment, finding npc retainers, adventuring, rations, dividing treasure, classes, races, and character creation. This current red box does none of that for the player. It is literally a big solo adventure that builds the character as you go. So if 4 friends want to play D&D for the first time, my assumption is that they have to take turns going through the solo adventure, because there are no rules on character creation whatsoever. In fact, there aren’t even any racial descriptions here. What’s a dwarf? This will not tell you. Halfling? Hope you remember when Hobbits were called that in the Lord Of The Rings films to make a connection. Other than pictures, there is nothing here to show a new player what the heck a fantasy race is. Again, this leads me to question for whom exactly this box is? For ex-players? For new blood? Is there an expectation of familiarity with fantasy tropes?

Frankly, I’m a little stumped as to why character creation rules were not offered outside the narrative of the solo adventure, it certainly merits its own section of a “starter set”. Perhaps a small equipment list? Rope? A 10-foot pole? Anything?

I’m also not going to get into the builds of the classes here, as I’m not to concerned about that, but I’ll point out that there is an entire thread over at ENWorld on the fact that the characters made with this box aren’t even compatible with the Essentials characters in “Heroes of the Fallen Lands”. If this is true or not, I don’t know. If it is, big screw up. If it’s much ado about nothing, then sorry for the unnecessary link. I felt it was worth mentioning. There is also a thread on errata for the red box. Sigh.

The DM’s book is a little meatier, weighing in at 64 pages, and it is packed with all sorts of good info for the newbie 4e DM. After the opening page with the standard “what a DM does” stuff, the first thing presented is the 4e encounter format, in the form of the encounter that immediately follows the solo adventure in the player’s book. There are also combat rules, a full adventure, a how-to build adventures section, and a mini monster manual all included here. I can’t complain about the way advice is laid out here, or what’s given. It is rock solid advice that a new dm will find useful. There is a whole section on further adventures, but again, without character creation rules, how many further adventures can those pregens go on without even being able to change their armor or weapons?

One thing about the DM’s book that I didn’t like is that I’m not sure I understand the logic of including some stuff in the DM’s book, rather than the player’s book. I’m specifically talking combat rules and things about saving throws, death and dying. Certainly players need to know how to handle combat, saving throws, etc… I know that when we started playing 4, my players referenced the combat pages a lot. Too bad for the players going through this game, as the adventure is in the same book as those rules. The DM just can’t hand it over without grinding the game to a halt.

In my opinion, by including this stuff in the DM’s book, you are creating a situation where a group of newbie players will assume that it will be their DM’s job to teach them the rules of the game, rather than them learn it themselves by reading their book. Being a new DM is tough enough already, and including this stuff in a DM book meant for a newbie, adds more to the plate than is necessary.

These things should have been part of the Player’s Book, just like it is with the core hardcovers. Seems like an odd design choice, but they must have had their reasons. On the plus, the encounters have nicely detailed tactics for the monsters, and the included skill challenge is one of the nicer written ones I’ve seen. Granted, it is a basic social challenge (influencing a dragon), but the writeup gives the DM plenty of different strategies the PC’s can take, and how the dragon should react to them.

The book is then rounded out by a mini monster manual with different versions of the following monsters: Doppelganger, Dragons, Drakes, Goblins, Humans, Kobolds, Lizardfolk, Orcs, Oozes, Rats, Skeletons, Spiders, Stirges, Wererats, Wolves, and Zombies. A brief look at the Nentir Vale ends the book.

So what do I think about the red box? Well, it certainly looks nice, but I’m just concerned about a few of the decisions made in the presentation. I’m not crazy about the lack of character creation rules and the placement of most of the stuff that’s important to players inside the DM’s book. I don’t like that the characters created for the solo adventure and the adventure in the DM’s book apparently can’t really live on past this box. They wouldn’t know what to do with a weapon picked up from one of the enemies for example. There are no rules for them besides the “choose your own adventure” rules.

I love 4e D&D, I really do. I enjoy playing it, DM’ing it, writing about it, and being a part of the community. But I have to call a spade a spade and see through the hype. This product could have been greater than what it is. A big chunk seems missing if the real intent is hooking new people on the world of D&D. I’m not feeling it. Perhaps I’m wrong. Perhaps I shouldn’t have been reading the Mentzer box as I wrote this. It seems the wealth of material in that box set a complete unreachable standard when it comes to intro sets.

Is the red box pretty? Yes. Is it nostalgic? The cover is, yes. Is it the best intro to RPG’s I’ve ever seen? No way.

I’m a lot more positive about the overall experience of the Red Box for new players. My eldest daughter was able to use it to make a character just fine with only minimal guidance.

I agree that the races thing is a problem (heck 2 line-ups of all the races in the book would have been better than what it has), but I’m not as concerned about that as NewbieDM.

My big problem is that it is becoming increasingly clear (because of review copies of HotFL) that the Rogue and the Fighter builds are fundamentally wrong, that irks me a lot. You have to go and rebuild your character when you go to move up to the main Essentials line: that just plain shouldn’t happen.

No real character creation? Thanks, you just saved me £12. I was expecting a stripped-down version of full 4e, this sounds no better than the previous WoTC starter sets. The Mentzer set is not a completely unreachable standard, the prior Moldvay and Holmes sets demonstrate that!

It’s pretty funny that the last two “Starter” sets they’ve done haven’t been as good as Keep on the Shadowfell. That’s what I started 4e with and, although I was already an experienced DM, it worked great for us. It’s a big adventure with a cool D&D plotline that has driven the entire rest of my campaign.

I guess, theoretically, a new DM could pick up the starter set to get an idea how the game works and then graduate to Keep to play levels 1 to 3.

Back in the Mentzer days there wasn’t an online D&D character creator that could make characters up to level 3 for free.

Anyway, I’m picking up a red-box for nostalgic reasons but I don’t know that I’ll get much out of it. I was sort of hoping for a mini DM kit I could bring with me to cons. We’ll see.

Thank you for the honest & thorough review. While I probably agree with 90% of your assessment, I’ll probably still pick it up. As I suspected, what we have here is a “marketing buy in”. The idea is that this little “kit” will whet your appetite for the rest of the Essentials line. They have TWO players guides scheduled for launch. WotC will want you hungry for those, and that hunger is abated if you have complete character building rules that could be extrapolated upon. I know that sounds cynical, but I work for a company that markets consumer goods (dog food), so it’ something I’ve seen before. I’m not going to hate on WotC for it (and from your review, you’re not, either), but it important to recognize the product for what it really is – a teaser.

I am a little disappointed if what you say about the Fighter and Thief builds is true. That’s just a bit of sloppy rules management, and the company can do better. I love the idea of the tokens, but I’m a steely-eyed miniatures man. I’ll be picking up Castle Ravenloft for my miniatures injection.

Thank you again for a great review. When I get the set, I’ll be writing my own little review for it on my own site for comparison.

So my question is this:
My nephew is 11, the same age I was when I bought my own Red Box. He knows nothing of D&D. If I give him this one, will he be able to learn the game and go on the same road I went all those years ago?

I remember getting the Red Box in the early 80’s and LOVING the game, but being very dissatisfied with what the set did not provide. (Like the fact that it only provided a few levels worth of play.) I was mad, even! A grumpy 10-year-old, but all that did was make me want the Blue box and the Green box, and then the Black and the Gold boxes. So it whet my appetite and left me wanting more – playing right into TSR’s hands.

From everything I’ve read it sounds like this kit fills that slot perfectly: a nice little intro for kids who have no experience with RPG’s.

Couple of points: I disagree that today’s youth will need to be told what a dwarf or an elf is. LOTR is part of modern culture, and surely parents or friends will fill them in if tv and film hasn’t already. This omission seems like more of a space saver, but then again I haven’t seen the set yet.

On the “what’s in what book” topic, I feel that this is also a non-issue. Who’s gonna get the box, declare themselves as “just a player” and not read the DM book? Most kids who get this are going to get the box for their birthday, do the choose-your-own-adventure, then invite friends over and teach them by running the delve in the DM book. Nobody “gets their own book.” You get the box or you don’t. If you do, you read everything in both books, love it or hate it, and if you do you’ll spread the word to your classmates. “We’re going to Jimmy’s house because he just got D&D!”

Here’s the thing, though… unlike in the 80’s, if the friends like it, they don’t have to buy the red box! They pick up HFL or the DM kit or whatever about the game particularly interests them.

Nothing you’ve said here leads me to believe that this won’t help guide newbies to the game. It merely will drive people who pick it up to buy something else, whereas the old approach actually may have limited their sales because the DM kid is the only one who had to purchase product.

The difference between this approach and the 80’s-era approach is that they’re not trying to give you the full game, little by little, in boxed form. Instead, this truly is a “starter kit” to give you a little flavor of what it’s like to play and an easy way to get started. If you like it, there are other player-only or DM-only Essentials products to pick up depending on your taste. Based on my D&D-intro experience I think this approach will actually sell more WotC product. In my neighborhood, I was the only one with the game, and the other kids would borrow my stuff to make characters. No reason for them to spend $$ because 50% of their purchase was DM-only, something they weren’t interested in. Now there will be player-only and DM-only material, everyone can pick and choose.

ALL THIS ASIDE, I will probably not pick up this set because I don’t know anyone with kids old enough to play. Your review and others I’ve read lead me to believe that Red Box = Kid Stuff. Nothing in there for me, certainly, as I prefer minis and can print out tokens on my own. I was originally considering picking this up for some friends who played D&D in their youth in an attempt to re-kindle the old cravings. After reading this and other reviews, I’m pretty sure now that I’ll skip it in favor of some of the other Essentials products. It just sounds way too dumbed down for anyone who has prior experience with RPG’s. Again, I’m hoping that the other Essentials products will be more meaty, which is what those friends will go for.

But I did sign up to win it. ‘Cause I’ll sure as hell take one for free! If I do it’ll sit unopened on my shelf for the excellent Elmore art. If I don’t win, I’ll just pick up a poster. 🙂

You just saved me the trouble of writing a review, Newbie – this is spot on.

I would add that only being able to choose from four races and four classes – and then being told what powers & feats I had to use – felt incredibly restrictive. I can understand not wanting to overwhelm people who are totally and completely new to the hobby, but it does little to help me feel like I wasted my $20 to build characters that 1) are restricted to trite fantasy stereotypes that typify all fantasy RPG’s (referred to as ‘core’ classes/races) 2) can’t use my favorite weapons/powers/feats/abilities and 3) have a bunch of inconsistencies and errors in them anyway.

I will admit that, since I’ve avoided using normal sized minis/tokens/Dungeon Tiles for so long, the included tokens may just get me buying Dungeon Tiles. I can only assume the upcoming Essential DM kit will exacerbate that feeling.

Perhaps it was worth mentioning in my review that the Mentzer red box was my first intro to anything related to fantasy, and to DnD. It was what would set the tone for me as to what races look like, and what that “world” was supposed to look like.

I saw your comments on Twitter and wanted to support you there but it was too small a comment box. I’m pleased that you have pointed out the flaws of this box. I too started back in the day with the old red box although I don’t remember much of it other than the awesome artwork. I loved D&D and the 3 levels in the original set were plenty for me, then I found D100 games and went off into New England hunting Cuthulu cultists. Back to the plot, this box seems more like something for older players who want to indulge themselves and then get the essentials books. I’m looking forward to the rules compendium and other products.

My main worry with this line is that I’d like a basic rulebook the format of the Essentials DMG. Something I can give the players and say – read this, it has the concept, combat instructions and the basic classes and races. Everything seems to have been spread all over the place in that everyone needs to buy the rules compendium.

I’ve ordered the Red Box and I’ll enjoy it for the ‘nostalgia’ but other than that I’ll wait for the 2 Essentials Heroes books before I think about moving my players toward it.

Not sure I think lack of racial explanations to be that big of a deal… I mean back in the day when a kid got the red box, an elf was the little guys who makes toys. Maybe cookies.

Today’s kids have a ton of other places showing them what a fantasy game elf is, or what a dwarf is. I’d actually be a lot more surprised to find a kid who didn’t already know what they were by name alone.

I don’t think you really need to explain to a kid anymore what an elf is- so much as what they can do in THIS game.

I honestly think that the main target audience of the new red box are people who’ve never played any sort of RPGs before. Considering that it will be sitting on shelves at Target and Walmart next to monopoly and clue, people who try it out for the first time will have an expectation of their play experience similar to board games or “dinner mystery games”. They will want to be able to play for an evening and have little expectation of carrying on a campaign. In that light, it’s understandable why there aren’t any rules for character advancement beyond the bare bones given.

I’m a little disappointed though that there is no one page reference sheet that can be given to each player, listing actions that can be taken, common status conditions, etc.

I just got the red box at PAX-Prime over the weekend. This is my first D&D product, and I feel that I should respond because I seem to be the target audience: I’ve heard of D&D, I have some acquaintances who play, I am familiar with fantasy through movies and video games, I would be super adverse to paying over a hundred bucks in books and sets just to start trying out the game, I would probably not want to read through two tomes before I can take my first swing at a goblin.

It’s for new players who’ve heard of the product, are somewhat familiar with RPGs and fantasy, facing something like 100 different gaming products at the $5-20 range, all fighting for her attention and cash. Also, where is one supposed to even begin, with all the different stuff D&D puts out? The Red Box says, Hello, I’m cheap, I’m easy, and I’ll get you playing really soon.

A new game on xboxlive is $5. I’m not dropping 60 bucks on a player’s manual.

That said, it’s disappointing to hear that some stuff seems to be broken, and that characters created here will go nowhere.

It does if the intended audience for this product (who may not know what the heck errata is or where to find it) picks up the follow up product and finds that their box-made pc’s arent the same nor really compatible with what that product offers. Throw them out and start a new one…

A new player isnt going to think of errata. He’s going to assume everything is correct (as it should be).

it’s true, I have no idea what an errata is (error-data?) . I’m frankly very surprised to hear that this product seem incompatible with the “real” line of games….

But, I’ve invited 3 friends over to play some D&D this weekend. If all goes well, we will likely try to continue playing.

Sirs, what’s the least inexpensive way to get started? I hate to sound cheap, but we were all just given a tonne of free trials and stuff at PAX. I want to find the easiest way for us to get started. None of us already play, and we don’t have access to an experienced player or a good DM just yet.

There is even a demo of the Character Builder which – when you get comfortable with the game and want to create your own character – you can use to build a character from level 1 to 3. This is also free.

Oh~ That looks very nice. Thank you~ I think these will come in handy very very soon.

briefly looking over every page in the quick start rules, I think they did a good job with the “choose your own adventures” type of instructions in the red box. One new concept at a time, explaining what a skill is, what a minor action is, why I have this many hit points, where each bit of new information go on the sheet….

In the quick start rules, page one talks about skill checks and attack rolls. These are good information, but information that I can’t do anything with except for try to remember this page for reference until it’s relevant to me. A newbie asks: okay, but what’s the *first* thing I should do?

The red box, even if it did everything else incorrectly (I’m not saying that it does), it did this right: it tells the new player to read one of the books first, and then to pick up the character sheet, and then slowly walk through every box with the player. When was the last time you guys paid attention to how many squares there are on the bloody sheet? How about how many D&D specific terminology are on there? The Red Box’s booklet isn’t complete, and it leaves out stuff important to the game like how do I pick up equipment from the goblins. But that information is no good to me until I can come to a point where those things even matter.

Do I wish they had expanded info, like a “now that you know the basics, here’s more”? Yes. But I guess if I’m still interested at this point, it’s time to go to quick start rules or player’s handbook. =) so, overall I think their marketing strategy has been a success, at least for me. I’ll share the box with my friends this weekends, and see if they share the same sentiments.

Coming from a newbie, then the box did its job! Those of use old timers can’t never really look at things through that prism, so I’m glad you chimed in!

There are things that maybe I’m looking at it from a very warped point of view, and I’m also making unfair comparisons vs. an older, more complete product, that had a very different reason for being. Although I insist the comparisons are fair by reasons of trade dress alone).

If it worked for you, and you are getting what you need and want from it, it did its job. There’s really nothing more to say. Then I stand corrected.

I think this is a very good product, it explain things bit by bit and by showing, since you have the char builder demo and the other free product online (keep on the shadowfell)char generation and advancement is a non issue.
What this box need to do is to start you play pen&paper by yourself
to include the first 3 level would have skyrocketed the price (they should have included all the token and card…).
The difference in the thief and slayer also are a non issue since with the heroes of the fallen lands you have much more options and you will just go through the new char generation process….
i give an A+ to the red box

I can’t help but feel that the cover style is a bad choice. If this was aimed squarely at longtime players, sure; I may not like it personally, but I recognise Elmore’s artwork as both classic and deeply sentimental to veteran players. But new players are going to look at that cover and be turned off.

The 4e D&D books use a visual style that is perfect for contemporary fantasy; it’s ideal for those tho have a vague familiarity (have watched popular fantasy movies, maybe read a recent fantasy novel in their spare time, or perhaps briefly tried something like WoW) but have never played an actual RPG. But the Red Box’s look… it may be nostalgic, but hearkening back to the time of saturated solid colours and tacky fonts brings up negative ideas for other people. It suggests a certain old-fashioned mindset for the game, and I don’t think that does a great job of selling D&D to an audience that expects their fantasy to look and feel like gorgeous high-budget hollywood epics.

hmmm well I’m not sure pen/paper RPG is the best hobby for “an audience that expects their fantasy to look and feel like gorgeous high-budget hollywood epics” in general.

But then again, I’m a fan of Dwarf Fortress*, so…maybe that’s why I found the box art a non-issue–even kind of charming.

The other thing about the box art that appealed to me is the implied assurance that this product was made proudly by the makers of the Authentic D&D Experience, not some new slop they produced for the ignorant that the fans despise. Although I am kind of getting that latter feeling from reading about loyal fans’ reaction to the box itself =)

*a PC game with nearly zero graphics, just a tad above text based adventures.

Well, as I said, it’s a swell way to give the old-timey players a big nostalgia hug. I’m just dubious of its ability to appeal to a new market. Whether or not it’s a good thing depends on whom they were targeting.

Personally I love the 4e visual style; I like my fantasy to feel modern, open-minded and contemporary – “pulp fantasy”, if you will. For me, there are too many negative connotations with the fantasy of that past era. Even Lord of the Rings is a depressing reminder that in traditional fantasy, women are effing useless (the movies trying to cram in Arwen as some kind of badass did not help).

But, each to their own. The nostalgia isn’t aimed at me, so I wouldn’t expect to appreciate it in the first place.

This is an intro box for people who’ve never played a tabletop RPG, and for that it does the job wonderfully. I’m going to use it to introduce some of my more console and PC gaming oriented friends to D&D. I think a lot of the complaints in the review are a little harsh for what this product is designed to do. A lot of what they did here is in line with the general direction of the Essentials line as a whole, and that’s removing choice and reducing complexity. It’s sit down and start playing, not sit down and hash over character creation and equipment. They’re in direct competition for eyeballs that are more and more drawn to CRPGs which themselves are becoming more and more streamlined, and they’re trying to adapt, and that’s what Essentials is all about. This doesn’t mean one way or the other is superior, but the market is definitely headed away from choice and complexity towards a more streamlined and immediate style of play.

This product is useful only to those wanting be introduced and to introduce others to tabletop gaming. For $13 off Amazon, it was an easy purchase to make for me.

As a D &D player who lapsed from RPG’s for 30 years I found the Red Box to be a gentle, nostalgic nudge that got my attention. Wizards was quite deliberate in telling it’s devoted fans the this was not aimed at them, but at folks like me and everyone else that was RPG-curious and intimidated with the depth of material that has been published and the breadth of the RPG hobby today.

Sure – the Red Box may seem like a dead end to the committed player, but to the casual or curious this is a great value that delivers what it promises. For around $20.00 my friends and I took a break from our other pastimes and gave D & D a shot. Now we are looking at the Essentials stuff to see if the on-ramp is friendly enough to take the next step.

Agreed with most points. As someone who played Basic D&D back in high school (red box) but has sinced moved on to video games and board games, my mates and I picked this up looking to get back into 4th ed. Luckily I picked up the full DM/PG/DM on special earlier this year. I just played through the basic red box pick a path quest and to be honest, I found it a complete mish mash, all over the shop, some stats seemed to contradict earlier stats and there was a lot of, oh and addd +4 (-DEX) to you FLANGING auro blah blah, where I am thinking “Dude, just tell me one thing at a time, bullet point it, explain it, tell me the next thing”.

The DM guide looks pretty solid thought. Overall, I think for AUD$25 it is hard to go wrong and it will get my mates back into the zone, but thank goodness a couple of us have the “proper” books to go through!